Lobbying for National Wildlife Federation

johnwilliamson062 · February 26, 2009, 12:07 AM

As a member of several NWF affiliate groups I was given the chance to lobby in Washington over the last few days, thanks to all you dues paying members(almost every hunting/angling club is a member).

I am pretty anti-lobbying, but I really wanted to spend a little time inside the system to see what was really going on.

I expected to walk into a a very downtrodden environment. Everyone scrambling to fix the system which is so obviously broken.

Instead I walked into an overzealous spending party. Everyone seemed elated at the amount of money available for them to spend and more than happy to throw it at just about anything. Some talk about the almost certain to happen third stimulus round now in early planning. Lobbyists who saw their projects funding tripled in the last month now asking for 100 times as much funding. This is judged not so much from the Representatives and Senators offices but more from talk in the hallways, cafeteria, etc.

Gun related? Get to the range. Get to an Appleseed shoot. Write your Congressperson. SIt on your butt. In two years they won't have to legislate away firearms because we might all be too poor to own them.

There were several representatives who were not playing, but the overriding tone was 'we have twice the money we did last year, what can we blow it on'

February 26, 2009, 12:07 AM	#1
johnwilliamson062 Junior member Join Date: May 16, 2008 Posts: 9,995	Lobbying for National Wildlife Federation As a member of several NWF affiliate groups I was given the chance to lobby in Washington over the last few days, thanks to all you dues paying members(almost every hunting/angling club is a member). I am pretty anti-lobbying, but I really wanted to spend a little time inside the system to see what was really going on. I expected to walk into a a very downtrodden environment. Everyone scrambling to fix the system which is so obviously broken. Instead I walked into an overzealous spending party. Everyone seemed elated at the amount of money available for them to spend and more than happy to throw it at just about anything. Some talk about the almost certain to happen third stimulus round now in early planning. Lobbyists who saw their projects funding tripled in the last month now asking for 100 times as much funding. This is judged not so much from the Representatives and Senators offices but more from talk in the hallways, cafeteria, etc. Gun related? Get to the range. Get to an Appleseed shoot. Write your Congressperson. SIt on your butt. In two years they won't have to legislate away firearms because we might all be too poor to own them. There were several representatives who were not playing, but the overriding tone was 'we have twice the money we did last year, what can we blow it on' Last edited by johnwilliamson062; February 26, 2009 at 12:26 AM.